By Kaitlin Secord 

Mastercard’s storybook “Cranberry & Crumm” is underlining the importance of Canadian small businesses this holiday season.

The holiday storybook weaves eight real-life businesses local to the Fort Langley, B.C., area into a narrative, with a focus on their importance in building their community. Accompanied by installations featuring the small businesses, the storybook also provides an immersive shopping experience meant to draw crowds to the town and encourage consumers to shop local.

“Starting in Canada and rolling out across North America in 2025, this initiative is about more than holiday shopping,” says Nisha Carcasole, VP of consumer marketing for Mastercard Canada. “It’s about supporting our communities and the small businesses that power them year-round,”

MasterCard is also teaming up with Canadian entrepreneur Jillian Harris, a fellow small business advocate, to enhance their mutual commitment to empowering local businesses and communities.

Carcasole says the campaign celebrates small businesses at a grassroots level, while also amplifying their impact on a national stage year-round. “By shining a spotlight on local businesses in a creative and eye-catching way, our goal was to draw attention to the unique role that small businesses play within their community, and showcase the culture, passion and prosperity they bring to their local streets.”

Mastercard also partnered with local stakeholders and destination marketing organizations, including Tourism Langley, to present a local approach that ensured the town of roughly 3,400 and its businesses benefitted from increased spending during a critical shopping period.

This consumer-facing campaign, including the experience in Fort Langley as well as national tactics encouraging Canadians to support their communities and shop locally, has run parallel to a national B2B campaign from Mastercard aimed at small business owners via social and digital platforms.

“Through this campaign, we’re highlighting the various tools, solutions and resources available to them, including our free Cybersecurity Assessment Tool and an opportunity to join the Mastercard Small Business Community,” says Carcasole.

The campaign was based on insights from the CFIB that noted a disconnect between the values and practices of Canadians: while most Canadians love the idea of shopping local, only 13 per cent shop at mostly small businesses, according to CFIB.

According to StatsCan, small businesses represent close to 98 per cent of all employer-businesses and for every one dollar spent at a small business an average 66 cents stays local.

“Continuing to foster an ecosystem of meaningful support for them and their community through access to funding opportunities, digital enablement and safety and security solutions, continues to be a key focus for us,” says Carcasole.

Agency partners include Weber Shandwick for public relations, McCann for creative, Carat for paid media and The Deli for production.